Based on the press material that preceded it, I expected The Bear Loves Honey to creep me out a
little bit – which it most certainly did. But I was surprised to find it also
gentle and humane – a careful balance of contrasting yet complementary
elements.

As presented by Baltimore’s White Flag Performance Group, hosted by
Theatre [502], the program notes present the pertinent details of the scenario.
Just two years ago, a Russian historian was arrested for exhuming the bodies of
29 young girls from local cemeteries. He stuffed the bodies with various toys,
clocks and music boxes, dressed them up, and had tea with them. The man was a
brilliant historian and published author with a gruesome fetish.

Those details are largely missing from the script, or at least not
conventionally rendered except in some inventively staged interrogation scenes;
and the play itself is a deeply expressionistic take on ideas only inspired by
the real-life events. The elliptical narrative structure can seem off-putting
at first, as the actions of three actors build a distinctly eccentric dynamic.
But the tone and texture powerfully define the first part of the play with a
creepy and oppressive atmosphere. The lighting and especially the brilliant
sound design have a profoundly disconcerting effect that challenges the viewer
into discomfort.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the story is that the focus
follows the victims more than the man, here called Emmet, and that the corpses
are given such vivid flesh and blood reality as to be persuasively portrayed as
victims. The girls are manifested as beings awkwardly reborn into a deeply
dysfunctional existence, taking first steps into language and motor skills that
are somewhat disturbing to witness, as they experience shock and trauma in the
transition. Whether they are their original selves again or some other new
creation that exists only in Emmet’s troubled psyche is one of the intriguing
questions posed for the audience. Eventually their entirely compelling
presentation becomes just engaging enough to alleviate the darkness.

The two actresses are Caitlin Weaver and Allie Press and, with due
respect to Steve Barroga’s fine and disciplined performance as Emmet, they work
in such close and well-defined collaboration and establish an essential
connection with the audience that it anchors the difficult material in
important ways. One scene in particular in which the latest victim is
shepherded into place by another was simultaneously the single most harrowing
and compassionate moment of the entire evening and was a wonder to behold. When
the White Flag mission statement speaks of “heightened physicality,” this is
what they mean. This is “devised” theatre, built from scratch through a careful
process of collaborative improvisation and finally fashioned into a script; and
one can imagine that such a sublime moment is hard-won and a suitably
satisfying representation of this group’s aesthetic.

While the surreal, pitch-black tone and gruesomeness (Emmet’s careful ministrations
with the corpses are portrayed not graphically but with a poetical suggestiveness
that is nonetheless unnerving) may not be for everybody, The Bear Loves Honey is a unique piece of theatre that stands apart
from most of what the busy and diverse Louisville theatre scene has to offer.
It is daring and provocative and worth enduring the moments that make you
squirm for the moments that make you think. It might just expand your
understanding of the human experience in unexpected ways.

1 comment:

I was lucky enough to catch White Flag's performance at Towson (near Baltimore.) It was amazing. This review really nailed the core of the performances, particularly the allegorical nature of the presentation.

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